NIT not Justin Cobbs' ideal spot to end Cal career

California players and fans celebrate after a win over Arizona during the second half on an NCAA college basketball game on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2014, in Berkeley, Calif. California won 60-58. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
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Marcio Jose Sanchez
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BERKELEY -- This isn't where Justin Cobbs wanted to be.

"Nobody wants to play in the NIT," the Cal point guard said a couple weeks ago as the Golden Bears were pursuing an NCAA tournament bid.

But Cobbs and the Bears (19-13) find themselves in college basketball's consolation tournament Wednesday night, taking on Utah Valley (21-11), regular-season champs of the Western Athletic Conference. Tipoff at Haas Pavilion is 7:30 p.m.

If Cobbs isn't entirely satisfied by the final chapter of his senior season, he no longer harbors the doubts about his own game that followed him to Berkeley as a transfer from Minnesota in the fall of 2010.

"I just didn't know if I was good enough," said Cobbs, who averaged 2.1 points as a freshman with the Golden Gophers before jumping to Cal. "I put expectations on myself to at least go in and contribute, at least help the team in some way. I went in and really didn't do anything."

Cobbs has delivered for Cal, even while struggling at times to find a balance between his dual roles as scorer and floor leader.

A first-team All-Pac-12 selection, he's averaging 15.8 points and 5.8 assists this season and enters the final days of his Cal career ranked No. 12 in scoring (1,429 points) and No. 4 in assists (511). He has a reasonable opportunity to climb to Nos. 9 and 2, respectively, on those lists.

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"Justin has been really good for us," coach Mike Montgomery said. "There's been a lot of games he's won for us."

That includes against Oregon last season and top-ranked Arizona this year, in which he nailed winning shots in the final seconds.

The 6-foot-2, 190-pounder hopes his next stop is the NBA, but his path isn't certain. NBADraft.net projects him as a late second-round pick, but Draftexpress.com doesn't envision him being drafted.

Brevin Knight, who played 12 seasons in the NBA after a superb career under Montgomery at Stanford, has faith in Cobbs.

"He definitely has a chance because he can score the basketball and he understands enough how to play," Knight said.

Cobbs' biggest challenge at Cal has been to figure out whether Montgomery needed him as a scorer or facilitator.

A glaring example of that inner conflict came three days after a 4-for-15 shooting game in a loss to Washington last year when he took just two shots against Washington State.

"Coach was talking about shot selection and it was a little directed toward me," Cobbs recalled. "I took it kind of hard because I've always been very self-critical of myself. I really put a lot of pressure on myself to do well, try to make the right decision, try to make everyone happy.

"He has matured in terms of his approach and what he's trying to do," Montgomery said. "He's not a pure point guard, he's a combo guard, a scoring guard."

Anyone who's watched Cal play this season has seen Cobbs' ability to take over when his team needs it late in games. Against Pac-12 opponents, he scored more than 61 percent of his points in the second half, and twice he scored more than 20 points in the second half after a scoreless first period.

Knight, who totaled nearly 4,500 career assists as a pass-first NBA point guard, said Cobbs can make himself into the player his team needs as a pro.

"I don't think you have to be born with it, but it's a mindset," Knight said. "His mindset will have to become more of a point guard's mindset moving forward.

"The good thing for him is today's point guards are not pure point guards. They are scoring point guards. If he is going to be a productive pro, he's going to have to be both all the time."